EPA, state accuse an oil and gas company of failing to control air pollution at storage tanks.

Environmental Protection Agency and Colorado attorneys have filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking millions in damages and a court order to stop polluting against an oil and gas company they accuse of violating requirements to minimize toxic emissions from storage tanks.

Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment air pollution control inspectors equipped with infrared cameras allegedly detected the emissions at multiple clusters of storage tanks.

The 27-page lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court accuses the HighPoint Operating Corporation of failing to control volatile organic compounds (VOCs), precursors of ozone smog, as well as benzene, toluene, xylene and other pollutants identified under the Clean Air Act as hazardous.

Storage tanks at more than a dozen sites north of Denver in Adams and Weld counties — including many that HighPoint’s predecessor the Bill Barrett Corporation had certified to the CDPHE as “controlled” — have emitted excessive pollutants since April 2014, according to the lawsuit.

This happened in a Front Range area where air quality for years has flunked federal air quality health standards, worsening the problem, the EPA and state attorneys said. HighPoint failed to design, run and maintain pollution control systems as required by the state to minimize leakage of the volatile organic and other chemicals to the maximum extent “practicable,” the attorneys said.

“HighPoint’s failure to comply with these requirements has resulted in excess VOC emissions, a precursor to ground-level ozone. … HighPoint’s unlawful emissions of VOC into the atmosphere contribute to this exceedance of the ozone NAAQS (National Ambient Air Quality Standards) in this area,” the lawsuit says.

The EPA and CDPHE have asked a federal judge to block HighPoint from further violations of Colorado regulations, order action to fix and offset harm to public health and the environment, and assess civil penalties of up to $37,500 per day for violations between January 2009 and November 2015 and up to $97,229 per day for violations after November 2015.